Mac Jones’ sophomore season with the New England Patriots has been far different than his rookie campaign.
For one, the quarterback is dealing with a high ankle sprain that’s sidelined him for the Patriots’ last three games. And two, Bailey Zappe has performed well in Jones’ absence, creating some debate as to whether there’s a QB controversy brewing in New England.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported Sunday — before the Patriots’ Week 6 win over the Browns in Cleveland — that Jones’ relationship with the organization has gone “sideways” in recent months, starting with Josh McDaniels’ departure as New England’s offensive coordinator.
On Monday, Breer doubled down on the assessment.
“I think a big part of this is who Mac is, right? Mac is a big ‘why?’ guy. Like, he wants to know why you’re doing something,” Breer told Ross Tucker on “The Dan Patrick Show.” ” ‘Why are we running this? Why am I being coached this way? Why is this person being hired? Why are you handling my injury this way?’ And New England’s never been a big ‘why’ place. I don’t know that (Bill Belichick’s) ever been big on giving everybody a full explanation for why he’s doing (something).
” … Mac had a great rookie year and he was really close with Josh McDaniels. And obviously Josh got a lot out of him, and I think Mac had a ton of respect for the job that Josh did in developing him. So, this is obviously all very important to him — the way it is to any quarterback — and he knows how important the Year 1-to-Year 2 transition is and how much growth there can be. And so I think a big part of it for him was, ‘Wait a second, why are you hiring a defensive coach as my offensive coordinator? Why are you hiring a special teams coach as my quarterbacks coach? Why are we running a different offense now? Why are we doing things differently? I had a lot of success last year. Why aren’t we building on what we did last year? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?’
“And this isn’t a knock on Mac. This is that generation, right? This is that generation where they always ask ‘why.’ Most players who go into New England don’t have the collateral to ask those questions, right? You’re just trying to make it. Mac’s a first-round pick. Mac played at Alabama. Mac was this way at Alabama with Nick Saban. I think coming out of his rookie year, with all of the change and everything else in New England, there was some natural friction there. So that was the background. And then there was disagreement over the handling of his injury and whether or not he should get surgery.”
Jones, the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, suffered his ankle injury on New England’s final offensive play of Week 3, a loss to the Baltimore Ravens that dropped the Patriots’ record to 1-2. The Pats lost the following week in overtime to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, with Zappe entering early in the contest after Brian Hoyer sustained a concussion, but they since rattled off two straight victories over the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns to improve to 3-3.
It’s unclear who will start for New England in Week 7 against the Chicago Bears next Monday night. It could come down to whether Jones is healthy enough to play. He certainly seems to be trending in the right direction, though some initial confusion over how to proceed with his injury might’ve compounded any issues between Jones and the Patriots.
“Initially, after he first got hurt with a high ankle sprain, it was thought to be a pretty severe high ankle sprain,” Breer said Monday. “And what the tightrope surgery does, it doesn’t really fix your injury; it accelerates your recovery. And it makes it so you can get back on the field faster. Mac saw Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, in his position room at Alabama, go through that surgery. Now, when Tua got it the second time — Tua got it twice — he came back and dislocated his hip. So, he’s seen guys go through this, he’s seen the good and the bad of it, and he thought, ‘I’m going to be better off just rehabbing the injury.’ And there was some level of disagreement there.”
So far, Bill Belichick has been noncommittal about the Patriots’ QB plans moving forward. And that could be by design.
“I think that’s, to me, the backdrop for the Bailey Zappe thing and why Bill Belichick refuses to say Mac’s getting his job back,” Breer said. “You notice that? He refuses to say Mac’s getting his job back. I think Mac’s getting his job back. I think there’s a little bit of a lesson being taught here — where it’s, ‘Look, we’re putting a fourth-round rookie from Western Kentucky out there and look what happens when he does what we tell him to.’
“And I think, to their credit, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge are doing a pretty good job with the guy, having the guy ready to go and playing this way. So, I think that there’s a little bit of a lesson being taught here. I think the Patriots would like Mac to take something from all of this. And we’ll see which way this pushes the relationship between Mac and the Patriots, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
The Patriots will face the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts in Weeks 8 and 9, respectively, before a Week 10 bye.
